


Faith

by heffalumps



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Heavy Angst, TW: Suicide, tw: character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 22:51:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13421292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heffalumps/pseuds/heffalumps
Summary: What's left when you're left with nothing? Cullen remembers the family he almost had - and lost.





	Faith

The moment he had felt those tiny fingers wrapped around his, he had known this was forever. The entire world had aligned anew. He had seen this child, this part of him and his wife - had seen not only how she looked like her, but how she looked like him, too. Somehow, their features had been joined together to create the perfect little person. She was so beautiful. She made him so, so happy.

Cullen should have been prepared. Infant mortality was high in Thedas. When the fevers had started, fear had crept into his heart. Fear that had turned into terror as her illness took hold and she grew weaker, and weaker… and weaker. Cullen had thought he knew was it felt like to be completely and utterly powerless… but anything that had come before had been nothing compared to this.

The healer had said it was good that he hadn’t yet had a chance to name her. Without another word, he had known what she had come to tell him. She was gone. His knees had given away beneath him.

_Of course_  he’d named her. Long before she had been born, he had named her.  _They_  had named her, huddled in the loft he could no longer enter for fear of the memories it contained. Cullen and the love of his life, alone, together, laughing at some suggestions, crooning over others. Finally, they had whittled the long lists down until there were only two left. Two names - one for a boy, and one for a girl. For their girl.

The one who had been born, but whose name his wife had never had the chance to speak.

He should have been prepared for that, too. It was not uncommon to die in childbirth - but at least he had been given a child, a beautiful child. Something to remember his wife by. Something to give him meaning. Something to live for, a single light when his entire world had been plunged into darkness.

And now that light had gone out. There was nothing left for him in this life. The Inquisition was gone, his wife was gone - and now, his daughter was gone. Thoughts he hadn’t had for a long time began to resurface. There was nothing for him in  _this_  life - but perhaps there could be in the next.

Here, on a cliff so high it was like standing on the edge of the world, he could feel that moment fast approaching. He had never thought that he could get to this point - but, then again, nothing had ever affected him the way becoming a father had. Even if it had been for only the briefest, fleeting moment, he was forever changed.

And so the last word on his lips before he stepped out into the darkness was her name. Faith.

He would see his little girl again soon.


End file.
